Lifeboat Foundation

The rise in insect farming means questions about insect sentience and slaughter are no longer just philosophical: The well-being of trillions of creatures is at stake.

What is the life of a cricket worth?

Insect farming is a rapidly growing industry, with hundreds of companies worldwide rearing insects at industrial scales. The global value of insect farming is expected to surpass US$1.18 billion by 2023.

Continue reading “More people are eating bugs — but is it ethical to farm insects for food?” »

The same goes for the broader economy. Lower subsidies, higher taxes and pricier labour have eroded some of Saudi Arabia’s traditional selling points for firms. It is unclear what will replace them.

Until the government banned the practice, residents of Abha would chop down juniper trees for firewood, to stave off the winter chill. As part of the regional tourism project, developers plan to plant 1m trees to reforest the mountains. It will be a long time before visitors can appreciate them: they grow just 5cm a year in the region’s dry climate, says Turki al-Bishri, a local guide. For all the talk of rapid change, the slow-growing juniper may offer a better glimpse of Saudi Arabia’s economic future. ■

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “No tourist Mecca”.

The nutrient content of our vegetables is down 40% over the last two decades and our soil health is suffering due to increasingly harsh herbicide use, according to Carbon Robotics founder Paul Mikesell. And farmers are increasingly concerned about the long-term health impacts of continually spraying chemicals on their fields.

But not weeding will cost half your crop, killing profitability.

The solution?

Mike straight, founder & CEO of farmpod.

Up next ►► Vertical farms could take over the world https://youtu.be/J4SaSfnHK3I Instead of shipping food all around the world, imagine your own food coming from your farm in a shipping container, just outside your backdoor. That’s the vision of FarmPod, a St. Croix-based startup looking to completely redefine our relationship with food with a fully automated vertical aquaponic system. This self-contained, solar powered farming method uses a fraction of the water and space of a traditional farm, and even uses zero pesticides. The closed loop system essentially mimics nature’s ecosystems, like a pond. Lettuce, strawberries, kale, collard greens and more can grow in the pod. And, since the produce doesn’t need to be picked early to be shipped to a grocery store, the owner can enjoy their harvest at its peak nutritional value and taste. Produce isn’t all — FarmPod can provide an aquaponic home for tilapia, catfish, crayfish, koi, and freshwater prawns. FarmPod uses automated software and hardware to make their pod’s aquaponics system as easy to run as possible. Mike Straight, the creator and CEO of FarmPod, wants to provide a healthy, hyper-localized source of food with a minimal carbon footprint. “We’re trying to feed the world one pod at a time by hyper-localizing farming, and taking the farm and putting it right in front of the place that needs to use it,” says Straight. Read the full story here ►►
https://www.freethink.com/series/challengers/aquaponics ◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠Read more of our stories on aquaponics and sustainable farming:
Vertical farms could take over the world.
►► https://www.freethink.com/series/hard-reset?media_id=avWfzm8Q
How vertical farming can save the planet and feed the world.
►► https://www.freethink.com/series/make-it-count?media_id=bEIXKavd.
New startup takes vertical farming underground — literally.
►► https://www.freethink.com/environment/underground-farm ◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠About Freethink.
No politics, no gossip, no cynics. At Freethink, we believe the daily news should inspire people to build a better world. While most media is fueled by toxic politics and negativity, we focus on solutions: the smartest people, the biggest ideas, and the most ground breaking technology shaping our future.◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡Watch our original series:
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A new report, published this week, highlights the explosive growth in solar, wind, electric vehicles, and other clean tech in the United States.

https://www.youtube.com/user/WWFClimate/featured.

*To date, most studies have focused on understanding how much carbon is stored above ground (in trees and other plants, for example). This research, however, revealed that when you look below ground and get into deeper levels of soil, there are massive deposits of carbon.*

Canada’s first-ever national carbon map reveals the location of billions — yes, billions — of tonnes of carbon stored in ecosystems across the country. This data, and how we use it, could alter the pace of climate change.

Continue reading “Carbon Map” »

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a scalable, low-cost electrochemical pulse method to improve the contact between layers of materials in solid-state batteries, resolving one of the big challenges in the commercial development of safe, long-lived energy storage systems. The new technology could pave the way for electric vehicles and smartphones that work much longer with each charge.

One of the challenges in manufacturing solid-state batteries is the difficulty of getting materials to properly join and remain stable during repeated cycles of charging and discharging. This leads to instability in the joints and causes the formation of voids, something known as contact impedance. Applying high pressures is one way to solve this problem, but that process can lead to shorting and would need to be re-applied periodically to extend the battery’s life using an expensive aftermarket application.

ORNL scientists have found that they could eliminate these voids by applying a short, high-voltage electrochemical pulse when joining layers of lithium metal anode material with a solid electrolyte material. These pulses see a current surrounding the lithium metal-encased voids and cause them to dissipate, leading to increased contact at the interface of the materials while resulting in no detrimental effects.

Solar car is better option.

The influx of electric vehicles into Australia could put an additional load of 20 gigawatts a day — or a doubling of peak electricity demand — on the electricity grid by 2030 if most owners charged up at the same time every night, a new report has found.

The $350 million research collaboration between industry, universities and government has identified a raft of challenges for the arrival of EVs which are expected to make up 80 per cent of new vehicles sales by the end of the decade, making up almost 25 per cent of Australia’s total car fleet.

Continue reading “Electric vehicle revolution puts pressure on energy grid” »

For over a decade, Israeli atmospheric water generator (AWG) company Watergen has been one of the players working to refine and grow air-to-water technology that can efficiently pull water vapor out of the air and collect it as fresh, filtered drinking water. Its previous work has focused heavily on large installations to supply communities, businesses and households, and its latest innovations shrink the water-harvesting tech into a form portable enough for overlanders, RVers, tiny home dwellers and other off-grid explorers.

The last time we ran into Watergen’s work was at CES 2,019 where it showed the Automotive AWG system. The center-console-integrated system was one of the wondrous highlights of the show, but it seemed an odd, limited use for a technology with such potential, a strange detour on a larger journey. Does the average passenger car driver really need a water tap over the cupholders?

Continue reading “Mobile H2O generator pulls drinking water from air for off-grid nomads” »